Emma Reed closed her heart to love years ago after a lifetime spent getting kicked around foster homes and bad relationships. Now she's on a mission to prove she deserves her recent award to paint a mural for a research base in Antarctica. Nothing and no one is going to get in her way.

After months working in recovery zones around the world, Hunter Wilson planned to escape everything this holiday season by rebuilding a lab at the Kiwi Research Base. Alone. No to family, no to fun. It’s isolation not intimacy he’s aching for. But when he sees the determined artist, that ache becomes an urge – after all, shouldn’t someone show her what two people can do with twenty-four hours of brilliant sunlight?

In the coldest place on earth, even the most frozen hearts can melt.

Stepping outside and breathing in the
sharp air was a painful pleasure. She walked alongside him over the stomped
snow path toward the boundary markers. He bent and scooped up some snow,
flinging a ball in her direction.

“I’m
not play fighting with you.”

He
looked like a little boy who’d been told he couldn’t have pudding. She ignored
him and looked at the sky, unable to walk as she tried to take it in. It was
indescribable. She closed her eyes, wanting to blink and blink to ensure it
wasn’t a dream.

“You’re
supposed to be looking at the view,” she heard him say. “Not standing there
with your eyes shut.”

“I’d
open them if I could.” She swiped her face with her gloves. “But my eyelashes
have frozen together.”

“They
what?” He laughed.

She raised her eyebrows and knew she’d
be looking like some physical comedy act, given the way she was contorting her
face to try to pry her eyelids open. She abandoned the facial stretches and
rubbed her hands over her eyes again.

It
wasn’t like she had much choice. Shaking her head, hot from the combination of
embarrassment and amusement, she waited.

His
hands framed her face, tilting it up.

“Your
gloves are wet and cold,” she half grumbled, covering up her mortification.

“Snowball,”
he murmured.

Emma
went still, because that’s when she felt it. The jet of warm air as he blew
over first one, then the other eye. Very, very close, she could almost feel his
mouth.

“I’m
really glad I brushed my teeth already,” he joked. “So you don’t have to cope
with a face full of chili breath.”

She
laughed and her eyelids pinged open. He was unbelievably close. Still so much
bigger than her, but he’d bent so his face was only inches from hers. His clear
blue eyes filled with laughter and heat. More than her frosty eyelashes melted
in that moment, as they stood too close for a little too long.

Emma
forced herself to swallow. The first step in breaking the frozen minute. But
all that faint movement did was draw his attention slightly farther south—to
her mouth.

Light
refracted somehow, swallowing the wide, wild world so she saw only him, heard
only him. It was supposedly freezing out here but she felt no chill. She only
felt desire. In a swift move, he reached for her, sealing his mouth to hers,
stroking her just the way she wanted to be stroked. Hot and sweet. His tongue
touched her lips lightly. And as Emma snuck a swift breath, he swept in. In a
flash, the intensity increased. So did the depth. Pressure built within her—as
did her need for more. She slid her hands down his neck and across his
shoulders, their bulky gloves and jackets annoying barriers. His hands at her
back pressed her closer. Suddenly he was passion personified, kissing her
fiercely—as if it were a kiss he’d been waiting for forever and now he wasn’t
ever giving it up.

Her
own passion rose to match, ruling her. The devastating attraction she’d been
fighting since yesterday was unleashed, and the current of electricity became a
violent surge, blowing out her brain and making her capable only of feeling,
not thinking. All that mattered was his touch, more and more of his touch. Her
nipples ached; she wanted his head and hands at her breasts. She wanted all of
him to explore her most heated parts. She wanted to be completely bare. Which
was crazy when they were...

She
broke away, sucking in a mouthful of the chilly air. “I’m not here for this,”
she muttered breathlessly. This was crazy.

He
ran his gloved thumb across her lower lip in a final caress, and she trembled,
an aftershock of sensation almost causing her knees to buckle.

“Nor am I,”
he said softly.

To be in the draw to win a signed copy of MELT, just leave a comment and let us know if Antarctica would be a place you'd love to visit! (or not!)

And come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from MR RIGHT AT THE WRONG TIMEby Nikki Logan will be posted!

19 comments:

This one sounds really good I love stories set in really cold places and yes Antarctia is a place I would love to visit although I am not sure how long I could stay there if your eyelashes freeze shut LOL you gotta love they way Hunter unfroze them and that kiss yes please

Hi Natalie, in answer to your question.... Heeeeellllll No :) I am not a fan of the cold at all. Re your other blog has anyone suggested Home Sweet Home for the name of the Shed? I've been racking my brain but cant come up with anything but I think it would look fab with a little wooden sign giving it a name :)

Hi Helen! Yes - I thought he was a bit sweet doing that ;) I'd love to go there too...come on now Tash - wouldn't it be amazing for the view?!?!? And yes, I'm working on a name- do agree it needs a little sign - that would be very sweet :)

Hi Natalie, what a hot, hot kiss in a cold, cold place. And yes, Antartica has been on my wish list for a visit for a long time. In the lab in Nelson we used to do a lot of the blood screening for wanna-be staff over summer and that always got me daydreaming.

WOW! Fabulous kiss, Natalie! And, having been to Antarctica, I can say that 'indescribable' is the right word for it. It is a stunning, stunning place. I'm not eligible for the draw (of course) but Antarctica is a place I'd LOVE to visit again. It truly is magical.

Lol Natalie, I double checked with my self and still nope hahaah - I do find it interesting in the info you provided last year about what gets shipped out to the antartic hahaha... however, if I knew there was a "Hunter" over there... I'd be packing my bags hehehe

Ive been to Alaska and have seen beautiful glaciers. I'm not sure, I would like to go to Antarctica though. Toooo cold. I live in the South. If we get an inch of snow, we freak. Schools close, bread and milk are scarce, and we totally freak out when driving.

I would love to visit Antarctica. What a challenge. Apparently, nothing grows there. It's an entire continent of nothing doing. I am sure that one day, it will become liveable, then it would be something amazing.

Hi Natalie, love your boom excerpt. Would love to visit antartica one days(^^). About your question is it a romantic place to start love, well love could be start anywhere even in a hectic bus that's full of people:).

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